Chef@Home: Country-raised chef Jeffrey Ruff digs the city, too

Country living calls to Jeffrey Ruff. It’s in his heritage, perhaps even his genes. His mother, who grew up in a remote area of the Catskills, didn’t have running water in her home until she was 17. Ruff, now 41, was raised on a dairy farm in Delaware County. And his best friends live on a spread in Coxsackie, where Ruff often retreats for respite from the noise and closeness and pavement of the city, and to collect the garden-fresh vegetables and just-laid eggs that inspire his cooking.

But Ruff, head chef at Wolff’s Biergarten, a busy brews-and-casual-food joint in Albany’s burgeoning warehouse district, doesn’t live in the country — not yet, anyway. He vows to make such a move each time he hunts for parking near his home in Albany’s Center Square neighborhood.

“Every week I say, ‘I’m moving to Coxsackie.’ I want a horse, a nice little couple of acres,” he says. “The only thing that keeps me here is my backyard.” He has his own little garden; his back porch overlooks a community garden nestled between rowhouses and the looming west side of the Empire State Plaza, and his bird feeder provides nature TV for his cats to watch through the window.

“I put that up just so the cats would have some entertainment during the day while I’m gone,” Ruff says. “They hate it when I leave.”

But more than just the backyard has to be keeping Ruff where he is. The city must have its own gravitational pull, or at least inertia, because Ruff has lived in the same building, save for a several-month stint a few years back, for almost a decade. He was in the downstairs apartment, then upstairs. He lived with a housemate until she got married and moved out, when her room and half of the rent were taken over by her sister, with whom he still lives. A friend occupies the downstairs apartment now.

“It’s always been like Three’s Company in this building — everybody in and out of each other’s apartments, up and down. We never lock our doors,” Ruff says.

He’s fixed up the place repeatedly, with much attention having gone into the kitchen. He had to raise the kitchen cabinets a few inches, for instance, their original height having been in deference to the diminutive stature of an elderly former resident. And Ruff added a counter across the top of a sideboard bequeathed to him by his grandmother, whose culinary skill inspired him to cook.

“If you look around, there’s little bits of Jeffrey everywhere in this house,” Ruff says as he tells the story of the sideboard. Among its contents, on occasion, might be a small Smurf doll, one of 10 or so that belonged to Ruff as a child. When his former roommate brings her toddler son to visit his biological aunt (Ruff’s roommate) and the might-as-well-be-a-relative Uncle Jeff, the boy takes much delight in hunting for the Smurfs he knows have been secreted throughout the second-floor apartment.

“Where is the …” Ruff says, pausing as he looks around the kitchen, baffled by what he was about to do next to prepare tonight’s dinner. He’s not addled by the company — dinner parties do not tax his hosting abilities — but two weeks without a cigarette can vex even the most determined-to-quit of longtime smokers.

“I just went cold-turkey,” Ruff says. “One day I was done with it.”

Well, that and a doctor who told him, “If you don’t quit smoking, don’t bother coming back to see me. The next time I see you will be on the operating table.” So he stopped.

Ruff used the same solo resolution when, more than 15 years ago, during his first stint in restaurant kitchens, he indulged too freely in the intoxicating culture that flourishes in the hospitality business. (The industry has the highest rate of drug and alcohol use of any profession, according to federal figures.)

“That restaurant kitchen drug habit — it just wasn’t for me. I said, ‘I’m leaving,’ and I did.” He ended up answering phones for a utility company. He was there for a while, back in restaurants, sold men’s suits, worked at a home-electronics store as a salesman and installer and even star of its TV commercials for home-theater equipment.

But about three years ago, when his former roommate said she and her husband were partnering with Capital Region restaurateur Matt Baumgartner in a new beer garden, Ruff joined the kitchen crew. Soon enough he was put in charge of the food. While much of it is beer-friendly German fare, heavy with wursts and kraut and schnitzel, Ruff inserts personality and lightness in daily specials. He is especially deft with soups, including the one that’s party of tonight’s dinner: curried pumpkin bisque. It is silken luxury, enriched with coconut milk instead of simple cream — a perfect warming slurp for autumn or winter.

“I just love the comfort of soups,” Ruff says. “And forget soup the day you make it. Soup is best four days later.”

Recognizing the incongruity of a chef who loves fresh ingredients insisting that something sitting around for days is better, Ruff guffaws. He laughs often and loudly and with much variation.

Ruff says, “I have 14 different laughs,” dictated by mood, occasion and desired effect. They include a laugh that sounds like Betty Rubble of The Flintstones, a raspy smoker’s chuckle that suggests naughty merriment or commiseration, and startling noise that, depending on its volume and tone, evokes either a goose honk or a donkey bray. “I am definitely more of a jolly person than a cranky one,” he says.

“That’s how you know Jeff’s in a bad mood or stressed — he’s not laughing. You notice it straightaway,” says Mark Graydon, the bar manager and daytime bartender at Wolff’s, who is among the dinner guests.

But Ruff is not a shouty, pan-throwing chef. Says Graydon, “In the worst-case scenarios, Jeff can be slightly curt. That’s it.”

“Life’s too short to be angry all the time,” says Ruff. “I’ve got a job, I’ve got great friends, I love to cook, and I’ve got a place to call home.”

He adds, “And it is that — home. It really is. I would never move to another building in the city. If I leave, it will be for the country. Until then, this is home.”

3 Responses

Jeff is a shining star. He has a winning personality, partially due to that “raspy,smoker’s chuckle” 😉 His food,especially the soup, is always delicious. Wishing him continued success and happiness. Thanks for sharing the recipes but I’ll leave the cooking to Jeff. Oh and kudos to him for kicking the habit!